§ MR. MOOREI beg to ask the Postmaster-General is he aware that the North Gorman Lloyd steamers are 23-knot vessels while those of the White Star Company are only 19; and as, under the altered arrangements of sailing, the steamers of both lines are to leave Southampton at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays, letters carried by the North German Lloyd steamers will arrive in New York on Tuesdays and enable replies to be sent by the White Star steamer leaving the following day, whereas mails sent by the White Star steamer from Southampton will not be in time for answers to be so sent, is it, in these circumstances, his intention to continue sending the mails which are ready for despatch on Wednesday mornings, and which heretofore have been embarked in Liverpool, by the White Star steamer at 11 a.m., or will he have these mails sent by the North German Lloyd vessels leaving at the same hour.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONThe fact that the packets of the White Star Line now sail from Southampton instead of Liverpool will not affect the arrival of the mails in New York; because the packets will continue to call at and to leave Queenstown at the same hour as before, and the final despatch of mails from England will still take place on Wednesday evenings. It is and has always been possible to secure the transmission of correspondence by the German steamers by superscribing the letters accordingly. Consequently I do not propose to alter the arrangement by which all correspondence is sent by the British contract packets, unless marked for transmission id some other way. It should be borne in mind that the foreign steamers do not furnish a regular weekly service all the year round whereas the British packets are bound under contract to perform the voyage regularly.